Tools of the trade?

[MichaelNoel]

Hello, I'm an artist, trying to break into this industry a little more professionally. I am experimenting with paintings, and do a LOT of pen and pencil work, but I'm very interested in breaking into the digital form, as I've seen some gorgeous work, and I think it suits the professional side of illustration (concept art, etc) a lot more.

However, apart from a good program (I have Corel, and will probably move to Photoshop soon), I know I need to go invest in a good tablet, a better scanner, maybe a better computer...?

I just wanted to know from the professionals what I should be looking for, and suggestions on the best stuff available (size of the tablet? idea on computer speed/memory requirements for heavy illustration work?). Hopefully I'll be posting my own work here someday. :)

I hope this is the place to put this!

Thanks so much!

[AdamR]

As far as software is concerned, Corel Painter is an excellent application. It's just as popular as Photoshop in this type of work, so if you're comfortable working in it, don't think for a second that you need to learn Photoshop!

As for a tablet, Wacom is the authority. You can check out their products here (http://www.wacom.com/productinfo/). You'll mainly want to be looking into the Intuos3 range of products, as it's generally the standard. The size is completely up to you, and while I wouldn't personally go below 6x8 myself, if your budget doesn't permit anything above it then it's still doable. Really though the size is gonna be dependent upon just how big you think you're gonna want, and how much money you have to spend, as they can get rather expensive.

Cheaper alternatives to Wacom are things like the Genius PenSketch series, which is a really good brand of tablets to be honest -- the main disadvantage is that the pen requires a triple-A battery to work, which dies pretty often. I hear AipTek makes good products, too.

As far as the computer goes, the last thing I want to get into is a Mac VS PC discussion. Some people like Macs, some people like PCs. I'm a big PC guy myself. The cheapest way to get a good computer is to build one yourself. If you're not that much of a computer buff, it can still be done rather easily. It's not as hard as it may sound at all.

The specs really depend on how much money you can spend though. 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a product in the Intel Core2Duo line (E5500/E6600), Gigabyte PS35-DS3L motherboard, and (if you're into gaming that is) an 8800GT is a pretty solid set of specs.

I'm not much help as far as scanners are concerned but I doubt it'd be much harder than a NewEgg search to find a good one.

- Adam

[MichaelNoel]

Thanks a lot, I wasn't sure if I needed to go with a ton of specs, but I guess it's a great idea if I don't want my computer to start slowing up too much when I start applying a ton of layers, etc.

My friend is currently building a PC in exactly that vein, and I think he did it for under $1500 (including a large monitor), so hopefully I can follow his example. :D

I think I will go ahead and invest in a Wacom around 9x12....

Thanks a lot!

[AdamR]

Mhm. No problem.

Yeah, if your friend knows what he's doing then definitely go to him for some help. You can build a pretty good PC with just 500$. A thousand or so and you'll be set.

Glad I could help.

- Adam

[Qitsune]

Hello, I'm an artist, trying to break into this industry a little more professionally.


Which industry is this and what exactly do you want to do? I disagree about Photoshop, it is a standard and there are things you can do with it that Painter can't do, so it depends what you want to do. At my job (videogames) everyone has Photoshop, no one has Painter.

[AdamR]

Well he said concept art and such, so in that respect I don't see any reason to switch from what he's used to. Painter is just as popular as Photoshop as far as I've noticed for any type of illustrative work.

[VulgarDragon]

Even PCs that are few years old can still handle Photoshop and Painter. I am running Photoshop CS on Athlon 3200 (2.2 gHz) with 1 gb of memory, and no slow down problems even on large pictures. But Painter does choke on large pictures. I will be adding another 1 gb of memory to it and see if that will help with that. Just saying that if you want, you could save $$ by buying a older computer and using what you have left for the software and tablet.

[Flake]

I'm on a 3 year old Athy 3000 with a gig of pc3200 and I can run PS fine, Painter does choke a little on bigger images though.

Most modern games oriented boxes with lots of ram should handle Painter or PS comfortably. If it'll run "Battlefield Madden 4 Extreme Turismo Edition", PS will sail along.

It's PS or Painter, you're not trying to render a Pixar movie..


I disagree about Photoshop, it is a standard and there are things you can do with it that Painter can't do, so it depends what you want to do. At my job (videogames) everyone has Photoshop, no one has Painter.
Sure, but if you can get your head around the relatively quirky Painter, you should be able to pick up PS in no time. Quick intro course (levels, curves, channels, masks etc) and you should be away and painting. They have more in common than not.

Painter kinda supports PSD files now anyway, so switching between them and using the strengths of each shouldn't be a problem.