ArtSpots Forum Group - Tutorials & Exercises

Vanishing points in 3-point perspective? - Metsys

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:28:42 -0000

There's another option: cheating. Make a simple 3D mock up of your scene, render it, and then paint on top of that. From the rendering you can identify the 3 vanishing points so you can paint other things in perspective too. To help with perspective in Photoshop, there's a trick I learned from Donald Yatomi (http://www.donaldyatomi.com/) where you use paths as guides for your perspective lines, using the direct select tool to change the position of the end point of the line so the other end is still at the VP, and box selecting to move the VPs (see attached image). The paths layer can also be hidden, and it's never exported or printed if it isn't. You can also go an extra step with cheating by adding light sources to your 3D mock up to help with painting shadows, reflected light, etc. It's usually not practical for characters though, but it's handy for easy things like vehicles and architecture. I do recommend adding a few floating spheres where characters would be as clues to how the lighting should look. Now, I started using these tricks years ago because I was a 3D guy new to illustration, and knew that I could cut corners with my 2D projects that way, but I'm seeing it becoming more and more common for artists with a 2D-only background, who do understand 3-point perspective, to start learning things like Maya just so they don't have to spent as much time worrying about perspective and lighting in the first stages of painting.

Vanishing points in 3-point perspective? - Nocte

Tue, 13 May 2008 11:14:25 -0000

Thanks for the tip! I've checked it out, and they do have a chapter showing you how to construct a drawing once you already have your vanishing points. But they don't tell you where to place the VPs to begin with. (Other than that the first two are "somewhere" on the horizon, and the third one is "somewhere far away".)

Uneven Coloring - Metsys

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:36:05 -0000

Isn't there a way that you can save your own brushes, or make your own brushes palette in Essentials? I just looked at J.C.'s painting. Again, give the acrylic brushes a try and see if there's some way that you can "add thinner" or lower the opacity of each stroke. With that you can create smooth transitions and shading by overlapping strokes to build up the color. And don't be afraid of the oil paints either. Yeah, it can smear but that's what makes oil paintings cool. There might be a way that you can control how much the oil paints will blend as well. Painter Essentials isn't a bad program, it's just a matter of finding good ways of using it and avoiding what it does poorly. In my experience it's mixed media paintings, which seems to be what you've been having problems with too. Just experiment with it and learn as much as you can about how to use it.

Uneven Coloring - kitsukami

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:42:56 -0000

I think the look of the fur in "Fang the cat" by J.C. is what I'm really trying to do. Not so much the patterns as the way the colors and textures of the fur transition. I'm not worried so much about my style. I don't mind it being kinda... odd. I just don't know how to get the colors to blend without smudging or smearing them. If you look at my finished work, you'll probably notice that his fur looks very sketchy. I've looked for ways to mutate the brushes, but they revert to their default state as soon as I change something. I think I'll just stick to sketching for a while before I smash my head countless times into the computer while trying to figure out how I got suckered into buying this one.

Uneven Coloring - Metsys

Mon, 12 May 2008 05:58:04 -0000

Yeah, I remember Painter having unusual layer behavior, with the bump mapped paints some brushes not being able to work with some layers (watercolor layers for example). I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would help, except of course the stock answer of trying something other than Painter or changing your style. All I can really suggest with Painter is to try using different brush types and layer arrangements. The acrylics may look chalky because your canvas size is really small. I usually have my canvas no smaller than 9x12 at 300ppi (pixels per inch), which equates to 2700x3600. I'm confident that the textures that Painter uses for it's brushes is meant for art being created at that resolution. The paper texture that is making the acrylic look chalky would be more subtle compared to the rest of the image if the canvas was larger. You can then export your image and scale it down when you are ready to put it on the web somewhere. As for the color blending, I think using a paint, like acrylic or something else, that will not blend oddly like water color does with layers. As for the line art, I'm not sure what to suggest. I don't know if Essentials has a calligraphic brush, ink brush, or something else like that; something that will make thin lines without blending weird (so markers are probably out too). Also, don't forget that you can edit brushes or make your own (I'm not sure if Essentials lets you do that though). You'll likely have to do this to get the effect you want. You should be able to turn off some things like texture and other settings to get the brushes to behave better. So if there's a brush that you like but isn't perfect, you should be able to modify it or create a mutant brush that'll better serve your needs. And if you can, point us to an image that has the effect or style that you are trying to achieve. That'll help since I'm not sure exactly what effect you are trying to achieve in your work, and if it's the process or software that's falling short.

Uneven Coloring - kitsukami

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:17:16 -0000

Essentials does have layers; however, they are quite the tricky little beasts. The colors in each layer mix terribly. And so I've been using a small brush to work around that issue with layers. My process? Well, it generally starts with a pencil tool, then I use an art pen called "Tapered Gouache." I really only use the water colors for backgrounds, though, and use airbrushes for shading. I've tried using the paint bucket, but it doesn't have a "close gap" function, so I often got a canvas full of only one color. The acrylics look like chalk and the oils are a messy. I think I might just be up poop creek without a paddle.... But I'll keep trying to find something that works.

Vanishing points in 3-point perspective? - techmon

Sat, 10 May 2008 05:05:13 -0000

Try the book "How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way." It is mentioned there and might answer your question.

Uneven Coloring - Metsys

Thu, 08 May 2008 22:36:27 -0000

For me using a big brush size is the best for filling in large areas. From the image in your gallery it looks like you are filling in on the same layer as your line art, which would make it really hard to do that without painting over your lines, and could be the reason for you using small brushes? Put your line drawing on a different layer as your fill if you can (I haven't used Essentials so I'm not sure if you can use layers), that should help. I'm not sure what kind of brush you are using, but it looks like some kind of water color brush. Those can be hard to use because layering makes the color darker. Try using the acrylic or oil brush to do fills so you get a solid color. But yeah, let us know more about the process you are using to create these.

Uneven Coloring - Vizon

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:58:47 -0000

Well I've never had Painter Essentials 3 so I have no idea what tools it has, but I would suggest, if it's anything like Painter 8 or 9 - to try out different tools in the program (like airbrush or oil) and their variations to see which gives you less grain. Also - I would double check the opacity and flow settings.

Uneven Coloring - kitsukami

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:55:14 -0000

For a while, I've been trying to color in my sketches in an even manner. However, no matter what I've tried, it always looks uneven and penciled. I've noticed that most artists here are able to do it, so I don't know if there's something basic I'm forgetting, or if I just don't have the right programs. (I have Corel Painter Essentials 3)Does anyone have any ideas?

Memory sketch - KoOkY!

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:50:45 -0000

Cool glad it helped! Check out some of his other videos when you can too. Seems to know what he's talking about. Hehe. Finding people to pose for life drawing is a bit tricky sometimes though. :P

Memory sketch - Vizon

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:44:38 -0000

Wow thanks for that link, Kooky! I was just lamenting about how I need to take more figure drawing and why I continue to have difficulty with anatomy in my work. This is good info. I will have to try out some of those ideas!

Memory sketch - KoOkY!

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:05:32 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U48YQsqov7k Friend of mine had posted a link to this. I thought it was really interesting. He has a number of videos out there too about different sketching methods and about what you should be trying to get out of all the practice we (should) be doing. Hehe.

Oils/Watercolor Fur Texture Tutorials? - Spirit Creations

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:11:40 -0000

Yep. Anyone know of any good online tutorials for creating fur texture with oil paint or watercolor? There's a crap load of tutorials for happy little trees and such, but I'm having a hard time finding tutorials for fur texture. Thank you. :)

Sculpting with Super Sculpey - Vizon

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:40:54 -0000

kitten chan said: Do you use glaze?

No. Not with polymer clay at least. The closest thing I use to glaze is clear fingernail polish. Otherwise it's just acrylic washes. You might be thinking of stoneware/terra cotta type clay. I have used that in the past and I did use glaze for most of those projects. Polymer is a different substance though. Much cleaner. I still like working with water-based clay, but it's harder now that I've gotten used to not having to slip and score. Or keep my projects sprayed down and wrapped in plastic.

Sculpting with Super Sculpey - kitten chan

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:40:40 -0000

Do you use glaze?

Custom Brushes - Egypt Urnash

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:20:37 -0000

I think you should be able to double-click them to load the file as a normal AI document, then do a 'save as' and choose some lower version. I did a quick test with some of the brushes that came with AI and it loaded into the brush palette just fine. No comment on the actual brushes as I'm still using CS2. Me, I have a grand total of four custom AI brushes that I put in my default documents, as I got tired of creating them over and over. One is my signature chop as a scatter brush; I just drag it from the brush palette to an empty place in the document to put my signature there. The others are art brushes. It is easier for me to describe them than to bother uploading them. Seriously. (If you don't use Illustrator this will be completely useless to you; skip over it.) - set your fill color to 100% black - grab the ellipse tool, click with it. tell it you want a 10x1pt ellipse. - drag that into the brush palette, make it an art brush. set the color mode to 'tints'. - select the leftmost point of the ellipse, delete it. - grab the remaining half-ellipse and drag it into the brush palette. another art brush, same color mode. - grab the rectangle tool, click with it. make a 10x1 pt rectangle. - zoom in tight. select just the vertical line on the right side - no points, just the line. hit the delete key. - select the two rightmost points, do apple-alt-shift-j. this is an undocumented shortcut that does the same as hitting object->path->average followed by object->path->join. it's probably ctrl-alt-shift-j on windows but I never use that. Anyway, you'll end up with a triangle. - drag the triangle into the brush palette, art brush, tints. Use for stray hairs, eyelashes, outlines, linear highlights, etc, etc - anywhere you need a mostly linear element but don't want it to be the boring ones of a normal line. I make them in this technical way so that the weight behaves as I expect it to; if you draw really big art, you constantly have to type fractional values into the stroke weight box.

Custom Brushes - Whisper Panthress

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:56:05 -0000

thanks jonas. I have a lot of custom brushes but I'll be sure to give these a try :) And no idea how to downsave either...

Custom Brushes - Apollyna

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:56:22 -0000

I don't think you can "downsave", but you can post an image pack of the brushes. If you don't know, that's where you put the original image of all the brushes in one pic, so people with lower versions can just make the brush pack themselves. I feel like a pro at that, since I have Photoshop 4.0. xD Hope this helps.

Custom Brushes - Jonas

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:44:13 -0000

Hey, folks. If anyone wants them, here are the custom brushes I use in Adobe Illustrator: http://jonas.critter.net/Specials.ai If anyone else would like to post in this thread and share their custom Illustrator/Photoshop brushes, I think we could all benefit from that. :) I see custom brush stuff posted all the time on DeviantArt, so I figured we could have our own thread for that. EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that since my brushes are CS3, they're apparently not backwards-compatible with previous versions of Illustrator. If any of you know how to downsave them to a prior version of Illustrator, please lemme know.

Digital Coloring - Slipstreme

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:10:41 -0000

I will definately look into it after I move.

Digital Coloring - Karu Dragon

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:16:28 -0000

Graphire 4 is certainly supported as is my 3. It was a bit fiddly having to uninstall my drivers, resetting then putting on the new as mine were that dated. There's a good chance yours will be up there too.

Digital Coloring - Slipstreme

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:39:24 -0000

Unfortunately I will probably have no access to it for a while. I recently moved and sadly will have to move again, so I can't really tear into my piles of stuff, considering I don't own the place I am in. (Long complicated story). I'm pretty sure that when my fiancee and I tried updating it last time she and I either found out the model wasn't supported or that it might have been an earlier Graphire. I can't remember. I know I kept the tablet though, just in case we figured out a way to get it to work. But I just remember it being so much easier to control than a mouse.

Digital Coloring - Karu Dragon

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:09:19 -0000

Not at me but glad you posted those drivers, my ickle graphire3's was WAY out of date. No idea why but the tablets being a lot less tetchy than it's been of late, it usually goes nuts in Photoshop yet there hasn't been one spaz attack in five minutes where it'd usually have at least 11. I'm probably speaking too soon but if this is any indcation... Thanks for linking I'd never have known otherwise :)

Digital Coloring - Kyrahlynn

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:52:41 -0000

Did you try downloading the latest driver for the Wacom Graphire 4? The website still has it: http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/select.cfm I don't know if it will help, but it might.

Digital Coloring - Slipstreme

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:38:59 -0000

Scraffic said: I use a hard edged brush with my pressure set to opacity, and hit the hot-key for the color picker in order to catch colors along edges to blend it. For softer edges I just use barely any pressure on the pen and work over the area, although you could just as easily switch to a soft-edged brush and lay down the color that way.

Sadly my tablet is out of service. Ever since I upgraded my computer to a faster gaming model, the sensitivity on the tablet has skyrocketed to "you have to draw in mid air to get anything decent" status. I tried tinkering with the settings to no avail, and sadly the model is no longer supported. I had a Wacom Graphire 4. So right now I am stuck with mouse.

Digital Coloring - Scraffic

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:48:31 -0000

I use a hard edged brush with my pressure set to opacity, and hit the hot-key for the color picker in order to catch colors along edges to blend it. For softer edges I just use barely any pressure on the pen and work over the area, although you could just as easily switch to a soft-edged brush and lay down the color that way.

Digital Coloring - Slipstreme

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:46:41 -0000

Since my scanner has decided to crap out on my details, and since I am always open to new media, I have decided to break out the digital programs and get serious at learning how to use them. I know the main fundamentals, however I am not that good with it. Every attempt I have made to color pictures on the computer have thus yielded upsetting results or I got so bored with them, because of how long and tedious the process was, that I never got around to finishing them. (I know and accept the possibility that there is no shortcut and that getting good will come with time, and arduous work.) Does anyone here know of or have some good digital coloring tutorials? Mainly I am looking for a more realistic way to blend color without resorting to the smudge tool. I have tried the blur tool but found the results a little fuzzy (no pun intended). I am really trying for photorealism as best I can with art in general. I can toon but I am not proud of my tooning ability.

Sculpting with Super Sculpey - Vizon

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:19:19 -0000

Impressive! Yeah, I have some Super Sculpey firm, but I've not tried it yet. Great face on your pilot there.

Sculpting with Super Sculpey - pete1141

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:57:45 -0000

Have you guys tried SuperSculpey Firm ? I think it's by far the best medium for highly detailed small work . You can handle your work without damaging it before baking . It feels hard at first but softens nicely with handling . You can roll and make the thinnest sections without squashing or breaking when placing on your model . Straps,belts ,eyeglasses,gogles etc.etc. are a snap .I've virtually abandoned the normal SuperSculpey . Firm however comes in grey only as far as I know so coloured work is out . I use it for prototypes . This little item is about 25mm x 25mm .This is the resin finished cast not the Sculpey prototype

Sculpting with Super Sculpey - Silver Jackal

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:27:42 -0000

Newbie here, hope you guys don't mind me bringing up a semi-old topic.. :) I wanted to add that as far as Super Sculpy being too hard to work with properly due to age or just it's regular consistency, Sculpy makes a Diluent that is supposed to soften it however much you want. I haven't been able to find it in major craft stores (eg. Michael's and JoAnne's) but you can order it online: http://www.dickblick.com/zz332/18b/

help with clothing. - T-Tiger

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:07:47 -0000

I was looking for tutorials on this not long ago. I found this tutorial in a simple google search http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/clothes/clothes1.htm which was simple, but helpful. It also makes a reference to Hogarth's book Seth mentioned.. so I'd say that's a pretty good source too!

Tutorial -- your opinion? - Kyrahlynn

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:45:37 -0000

I haven't had time to really read the tutorial, but have glanced over it- and I must say it looks wonderful. I'm really working to improve my anatomy, and all the stuff you put in on the skeletal system and muscles will be a huge help^^

Tutorial -- your opinion? - Emerald Sage

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:03:10 -0000

This is kind of off topic, but I have been wanting to experiment with making a true anthro mix for a while now. I think this will really help. What I want to do with it is take the bone structure of a human and one of some kind of animal and to split the difference between length of bones and such to see what comes out of it. The skeletal section in your tutorial has great images to use as reference in this ^__^ I think how in depth you went with muscle structure is really great! Look forward to seeing more. Oh, also...Do you plan on doing more with wings or no?

Tutorial -- your opinion? - Nocte

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:26:35 -0000

I've added a preview of chapters 3 and 4. They are not finished yet; you'll notice there's lots of things missing. I was hoping to have chapter 3 finished by now, but it's not going as fast as I would like. :P Vison: You raise a lot of good questions there, and yes that's the kind of things I'd like to include eventually. There's already a bit about anthro skeletons in 4.2 & 4.6, but expect more to come. (Also, I sent you an email a while ago, did you get it?) Tigress: Thank you for the nice comment :).

Tutorial -- your opinion? - Tigress

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:14:48 -0000

Just commenting on this from the angle of it being a lesson for beginning and learning artists I think this is wonderful. I am very impressed with your information and illustrations dealing with human anatomy. I'm certain I'll find a use for your tutorial once it's done! Ok, I'm sure I could find a use for it now! =} BTW, wonderful tough with getting such great detail in bone structure and movement and muscle structure and movement. Too many tutorials skip that or fly through it, but it's crucial that after you learn the structure, you then learn it's function! Top notch.

help with clothing. - Seth Desmoen

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 05:56:20 -0000

as far as clothing goes, the best athority is Hogarth's "Dramatic Wrinkles and Drapery", its the best (of very few) book on the subject. the best general advice I can give to supplement UndyingSong's excellent recommendations (nothing beats observation, and thinking of it as skin is a great idea) would be to find the lines of stress in the fabric. most fabric will have an anchor point(s) at the part of the body pulling the item away from the rest of the body (shoulder, beltline, knees) and the folds will eminate away from these points, like if you pick up the corner of a big sheet and pull on it. You can use this to your advantage to give a sense of movement to your figures, since by controlling the direction the folds move and where they converge you can tell the viewer what direction parts of the body are moving in. For example, if someone is running away from the viewer, as they push off their right foot they push forward with their right shoulder, pulling the fabric taught and creating a pattern wrinkles moving outward from that right shoulder to the rest of the shirt. This is only one simplified example, but the point is that there is rhyme and reason behind the patterns that form in any sort of fabric or drapery, and if you understand the physics of the system you can accurately depict the situation you desire. If you think of a more specific question about clothing folds I might be able to give you a better answer, but otherwise the best I can do is suggest the Hogarth book. hope that helps

help with clothing. - UndyingSong

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:11:40 -0000

Eee, YAY I was helpful. C:! You should post your results somewhere, so I can see them! : D Pleeease?

help with clothing. - Crowe Basalt

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:47:53 -0000

awesome! i didn't even think of it that way- i always see the clothing as a totally separate thing from the body. so that might be part of it. i'll also try your exercise when i get a day off. thank you so much!

help with clothing. - UndyingSong

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:27:24 -0000

Mm, I'd say an effective way of looking at the clothed figure in general is by treating it as if it has 'loose skin' instead of something entirely separate from the body it is on. Trying to mentally separate it from the wearer can make it look stiff. It is a part of the character you are drawing; it moves and bends with the figure just like their skin would. :0 As far as exercises go, perhaps keep the above in mind during a trip to the mall (or other public place thing..college campus, etc.) with your sketchbook. Quickly doodle the people you see as they walk by, paying attention to how their clothing reacts as they move. Hope this helps !