Well, since there are no art forum for posting your artwork, I guess this is the place to do it.
I am like totally new at this. Yes, very new to this art thing. :roll:
Anyway, I am a newbie at this so please help me by giving me art tutorial to use. It seem there are many different "way" to draw basically the same things. You can help me by critquing and telling me how to fix things. So please give me helpful comments and stuff. No bashing me, ok? I am just a newbie at this thing.
Btw, I think we should have an art forum or something to that effect.
I'll post more as my progress goes on.
Here my picture in progress, enjoy.
Yep, it still isn't clean up or complete. It raaaawwww.
I know it isn't very good, but that because I am a newbie. :)
Thanks for the tips and tutorial links you post! You guys are the best!
Art supply is something I'll get when I have money and my art skills improved to the point that I can draw a much hotter picture.
Well, it seem that I easily run out of eraser and pencils. So it make buying art supply all the more urgent.
Anyway, update! Enjoy!
Btw, is there any link on cleaning artwork on the computer? Photoshop tutorial is fine but I use GIMP as my graphic editor of choice. So if you know any GIMP tutorial, that be great!
Gum eraser won't help much with the amount of pressure being put on the pencil though. I prefer them too, but I use the plastic for the heavy erasing jobs or for sketching with nonphoto blue before any smudge-prone graphite is applied. Whether or not they leave a film kind of depends on what you're working with and the composition of the pencil in use.
Seriously, Kiba, I wouldn't wait for your art to get good before you buy harder pencils at the very least-- they're like 60 cents apiece and you will see a real difference to your work. Staedtler puts out a lot of cheap Mars Lumograph sets as starters for art students, usually you can get a nice array of weights for $5 or so. Doing everything in 1 weight of pencil is part of why you have so much trouble seeing what you're doing and have to keep going over the lines over and over, and you're damaging the paper erasing so much trying to get rid of those lines, which makes new lines even harder to get right.
It's much easier to make your art get better once you're working with the right tools.
As for the GIMP, I don't know of any tutorials but I will say this: the Levels and Color Curve (value) tools are your friends.
Personally, I havent worked with scanned, raw pencils as much as I would like, mostly due to the fact that my OfficeJet doesnt work well with Linux for some reason. Additionally it's not big enough for large originals; it's not a flat bed. So if I have something big I need to go down to a copyshop and shrink it into something my scanner will accept. That is, of course, once I finish the 'OfficeJet scanner not working with Linux' problem. [Please dont tell me to buy an upgrade to XP as a "fix". XP's $200, closed-source, less functional, and I personally like Linux better.]
Of course, let's say I have the file in the computer. I personally would have either inked it before cleanup, or digitally ink it via raster or vector methods: pencils dont show up well when scanned. If you still want to scan a pencil the right way, I would suggest what Aleph suggested regarding levels and color curves - however, there is no substitute for inking: pencils smudge more than ink IMHO.
Although you shouldnt be listening to me only. Find out what works for you.
Hey I use linux too! But my linux installation is even more unusable, it cannot connect to the internet because of the evil winmodem. At least, I got a dual boot system. :)
Window XP sucks ass!
Here the finished RAW picture, going to be the last raw one you see for the rest of this thread.
It is the best I can do. I know the arm is somewhat inconsitent but that the best I can do for now. I now turn my attention in learning the art of coloring and cleaning on the computer with GIMP!
Here's what I can tell you about using the GIMP for coloring and cleaning:
First of all, your first line of adjustment should be the scanner. You will never get a truly clean picture using this pencilling method-- I would place a thin sheet of paper over the original and 'ink' even if you're using pencils to do it. I use 2B pencils for my 'inks' (not tracing though, but i use nonphoto blue sketch) and they fool many people when I do it right :)
Most scanner programs allow you to adjust the levels-- slide the black threshhold up to darken your lines and-- most importantly-- the white threshhold down to help reduce paper texture and erasure. I suggest using grayscale output at about 400 resolution, but what resolution works well for your computer will depend on your memory.
You can do the same things on gimp later but nothing really replaces being able to sample the picture itself with more information you want and less you don't want.
Once you have the picture, I suggest reducing it to a comfortable working size. Gimp's scaling functions automatically smooth the picture somewhat, and will reduce stray visual noise. You may still want to use the levels (same way) or the colour curve dialogue to adjust specific ghosting issues. To use the colour curve, make sure it is set to Value, and push the curve upward or downward depending on the results you want. You can add points along the line to preserve good values in the picture while adjusting others. Play with it a while-- you can do some pretty funky effects with this.
Finally, to rid yourself of pesky paper texture that remains, you will want to sample out the very near-white tones. I suggest taking a piece of whitespace and clearing it to white so you know you've got the off-white tone and not the pure-white tone. Turn your selection view off (very important) by hitting View -> Toggle Selection. Use the By-Color selection and set sensitivity to 1. Click your whitespace. If you get a highly noisy result you have stray nigh-white dots. Clear them to white and your result is cleaner once coloured. Just be careful you've made good contrasts before doing this, because you don't want to eat into the softeneing around your curved lines that make them look natural rather than pixellated.
Your best friend in GIMP is the masking tool-- it is much more agile and useful than in most other paint programs. I mask my lineart rather than use the dodge-burn method. It makes for a cleaner picture. White values can affect burn math and muddy the image.
To convert your processed lineart to a lineart mask, make a white layer (to be able to 'see' your result without the confusion of the original) and a black lineart layer (or any other colour you want the lineart to be! I've used this to make some very strange and nifty effects). Add layer mask to the new lineart layer. Copy your processed lineart image to the mask, and invert the colour. In a mask, white is opaque and black is transparent, in case you haven't used them before. Anchor the mask, and apply it, and you now have transparent lineart you can colour 'under'. You can preserve your original layer for backup or delete it entirely.
Hope that helps!
Well, I use brightness and constrast to clean stuff in the color tool.
Your instruction is very confusing but I will attempt to diciper it.
I saved the image that is in progress in case that my attempt went really really bad and look much worse than what I have right now.
Tell me what's confusing and I'll clarify-- and none of it is strictly necessary, these are just techniques that can aid in making clearer cleaner art out of a messy starting image.
Levels is a better tool to use than contrast/brightness.
[quote:9f7364da50="Aleph"]Once you have the picture, I suggest reducing it to a comfortable working size. Gimp's scaling functions automatically smooth the picture somewhat, and will reduce stray visual noise. You may still want to use the levels (same way) or the colour curve dialogue to adjust specific ghosting issues. To use the colour curve, make sure it is set to Value, and push the curve upward or downward depending on the results you want. You can add points along the line to preserve good values in the picture while adjusting others. Play with it a while-- you can do some pretty funky effects with this.
Note: I believe Aleph is referring to the zoom percentage when you view the image. I hope she doesnt mean resize the image. You ALWAYS need to color at the 300DPI that your scanner outputs. Once your image is finished, then you save it at a smaller, web-ready resolution. ALWAYS save the high-resolution files - they are invaluable.
Of course, working at 300DPI will be more memory intensive on one's computer than 72 - 100 DPI, however it's the way you should be doing it. Alternatively, one can ink/color a sketch in a vector art program [the only one for Linux is Inkscape, which is fortunatly very good] in which one can change the DPI without wrecking the image.
Hmm, I remember there is a window port for inkscape.
But inkscape is a SVG program however.
Actually, I apologize but I am talking about scaling down. I bring it in at a higher resolution than that even, when I am doing pencils, at 400 dpi, and gimp's tools do not work well for me above 200 dpi. Gimp's scaling algorythm does a LOT to reduce scanner noise and create an ink-like effect to pencils scanned in with their black levels pushed to 'ink' presentation. (have to do that, my hands shake too badly to use ink without taking far more time than I have) My equipment is antiquated, though, and I resist going to gimp 2.0 because they took all its individual versatility out in hopes of making a Photoshop clone. If I want to deal with Photoshop interface, I will use freakin' Photoshop.
You can reduce from 400 to 300 and still take advantage of the scaling algorythm's natural smoothing too. Pencil tends to create a subtly 'dirty' line, because of the mechanics of grinding graphite onto paper, and that's why I recommend using scaling to clean it up. It's not something I'd do with inks.
I agree that the huge files are invaluable, and for things like products I definitely use them, but I end up at 141 dpi for the strips because I simply can't handle working with files larger than that on a 4 year old home computer that wasn't built for graphics. It's not something I recommend and it's not something I'm happy with for the long-term archival implications, it's just bending to necessity.
I definitely do recommend keeping the lineart scans separately on the highest resolution you can manage to scan them though.
I tired to follow Aleph's advice but it either didn't work, I didn't follow the direction, or simply outdated/wrong.
But here the picture update. I know it screwed up in some area and I am still cleaning it up.
I'd say didn't follow the direction. Compare the result you got, to the result I got, also in pencil, below.
See how masking, rather than using selection-deletion, eliminates those ghosty white values and makes for a more ink-like line.
That one pretty picture. I'll figure it out. It just a matter of expermentation and reading tutorial on how they do it.
I did learn a few new tricks but my coloring still terrible tho.
There is a million way to do it. I just have to figure the one way that work best for me.
I am completely done with my picture. Even though it look very ugly, I learn a lot of cool tricks. I hope the next picture will be colored even better and cleaner than this one!
I think I did fine in the first picture.
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Art critque and opinion thread (Work in progress)
Well, since there are no art forum for posting your artwork, I guess this is the place to do it.
I am like totally new at this. Yes, very new to this art thing. :roll:
Anyway, I am a newbie at this so please help me by giving me art tutorial to use. It seem there are many different "way" to draw basically the same things. You can help me by critquing and telling me how to fix things. So please give me helpful comments and stuff. No bashing me, ok? I am just a newbie at this thing.
Btw, I think we should have an art forum or something to that effect.
I'll post more as my progress goes on.
Here my picture in progress, enjoy.
Yep, it still isn't clean up or complete. It raaaawwww.
I know it isn't very good, but that because I am a newbie. :)
Don't have too much doubt in yourself, there, Kiba. This is really very good, especially if you're new to this. I love the style of the face, and the proportions look mostly right on. Though, as far as that goes, something about the hip region that doesn't quite look right. The legs look a bit too wide in comparison to the hips, and they seem a bit far apart.
I haven't used these tutorials myself, but I've heard many good things about the ones over at Polykarbon: http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/
I sorta lied about "really really new to this sort of thing".
Been drawing much longer. But I consider my ability not "real". I can only draw faces and hand :(.
This is my first serious attempt at drawing in hoping to become a "true" artist.
So in that sense, I am truly really really really new to that sort of thing. I think what got me going and empowered was that artwork I done in artclass. Look realistic. I act like a newbie because I am :).
I did use ploykarbon's tutorial but I had to compare it to another tutorial so in effect, making it easier on myself. I used Howtodrawmanga.com's hosted tutorial too.
I can draw my own hand but can't draw hands from imagination. Isn't that sad?
Yes, I can see how the hips are messed up. So I need to make the legs thiner too. Thanks for the suggestion. They're helpful.
Here another RAW scan. This is progress as of 2/13/06.
Much prettier looking but it still messed up in the head/shoulder area to me. Don't know how to fix it.
This looks pretty true to the genre, nice :)
Hands are one of the most difficult things to do as an artist, and even seasoned artists sometimes have a hard time doing them from pure imagination. You shouldn't feel bad about that. I recommend Dynamic Figure Drawing (among many other things it has a six-page study on hands and their articulation), and if you can afford it or find it in your local library, Anatomy for the Artist, probably the best resource you'll ever have for, anything. Understanding what makes a hand a hand will help you make sense of it in your imagination. Even if you're doing manga style or simplified art, trust me, that information will really help you know how to fold and articulate the simplified form.
The shoulders probably look wrong to you because the shoulder joints are a little low in comparison to the collarbone. Raise those circles a little bit and you'll have it a bit better. Also, bit of trivia, forearms are generally the same length from elbow to wrist as the foot.
If I may make a suggestion-- and the scan might be fooling me as to the materials here-- invest a little in some different weights of pencil (4H, 5H, and 3H are very useful for light sketchy lines), and even a non-photo blue pencil, and sharpen often. Erasures and the effort to make visible lines over old lines can make you feel like you're doing worse at the work than you are. It's not just for final presentation, especially since most comic artists trace or lightbox, it's for your ability to see the picture as it develops! Most artists are pretty stunned the first time they realize how much better their art looks when bold decisive lines finish it and obliterate light or blued-away art. A lot of it has to do with reducing distractions the eye has to deal with. If you go over the lines very lightly and don't make them strongly visual until you're confident, you'll do away with that scrubby line you have in parts of the body that you're not experienced with. "Inking" over scrubby sketch lines can result in wobbly lines, especially if you're not confident about what you're doing.
Some better quality paper will also help you make cleaner lines and better erasures. Every comic artist ought to have a Mars plastic eraser and a kneaded eraser. I know it seems silly but I suspect it will put a lot more confidence in your drawing. Your sketch lines are intelligent and your construction is more or less solid, so I think the rest is probably just materials, a little more grounding in anatomy, and practice. And to some degree, who doesn't need those?
I actually prefer art gum erasers over the plastic erasers. I find the plastic ones tend to leave a thin film over the paper that makes ink and watercolours not adhere as well. I've tried using kneedables too but they leave a bit of residue as well. For the most part I don't worry too much about the pencils since they'll ultimately be gone. With Apophenia 357 I use a 4H .5mm mechanical pencil which leaves very light lines (unless I press really heavily they won't even show up on my scanner). It's inked and then the pencils are erased and it's coloured with watercolours.
With Ghastly's Ghastly Comic I use non-photo blue pencils and then ink, scan, and CG colour.
Being able to draw your own hand is the best place to start. You could also try drawing hands out of magazines. As for drawing bodies, if you don't have access to a model, sit yourself down in a mall or other place with lots of uninterested people wandering around and sketch them while they're not looking. Food courts are poor artists' gold!
Left hands are very easy for me to draw because I can use my own hand as a hand model while doing the pencils. Although this has caused a few odd looks to be cast in my direction when I'm drawing in public (most of the pencils for Apophenia are drawn at the local Tim Hortons while I'm having my morning coffee and doughnut).
When it comes to hands I find the old saying "size does matter" applies. If I'm drawing a large closeup of hands I can usually do an okay job. It's when I have to draw them small that I always end up with some sort of deformed abomination.
This is why I try to stick to tentacle monsters. You can't draw a tentacle monster wrong.
I think one of the things that screws up a lot of novice artists when it comes to drawing hands and figures is the desire to draw everything. I know I often fall into the trap of trying to draw hands with all 5 fingers showing when in reality perspectives usually end up obscuring some (and occaisionally even all) of the fingers. This leads to odd hand perspectives and unatural stiff hand poses.
One thing I really hate though is drawing any sort of foreshortening, particularily with hands. It's extremely difficult to get foreshortening drawn correctly.
Someday I'm gonna have to take me some art lessons.
If you're looking for a basic hands and face tutorial, Hyung Sun Kim posted a really great one here. I found the information in it very helpful and I try to keep it in mind when I'm drawing hands and faces.
[quote="Ghastly"
If you're looking for a basic hands and face tutorial, Hyung Sun Kim posted a really great one here. I found the information in it very helpful and I try to keep it in mind when I'm drawing hands and faces.
I've always liked how he'd create huge tutorials in response to random art posts.