Help please?

[arizonaicedtea]

Well I've been humbly looking, reading, downloading, painting, sketching, etc. for a few weeks now trying to get into the complexities of digital painting. I have a decent background in traditional art already & I feel confident I can do a lot with Photoshop if I get a better understanding of brushes, techniques, & tricks. I'm really enjoying it all, but there is just soooo much information out there it can be daunting & time-consuming as hell.

So I'm sending out a call here, just asking all of you artists, whatever your experience or background, the most important and influential advice you can give on digital painting. Don't concern your replies too much with traditional aspects please (I understand practice, reference, art fundamentals, etc).

By this I mean generally: What are the main brushes or brush settings you use? Are there any special layer settings you find tried & true in most pieces? Are there any filters or image settings that work well for painting? Are there any tutorials or websites you would recommend? And finally, any tips, tricks, or shortcuts you know would be helpful. Try to remember back when you first got into this wonderful art what helped you most in the digital aspects.

I know I'm asking a lot, but hopefully some of you out there can give a lot lol.

Thank you in advance to anyone giving advice, it will be taken very seriously and be much appreciated :)

[daveneale]

haha, now there's a broad subject:P....There are a few posts about that have shortcut discussions...you might be able to find them with the search feature, but off the top of my head:

Setting the brushes' opacity (under "other dynamics")to pen pressure is a nice one. I use image/adjustments/levels to tweak lights/darks a decent amount. You can set shortuts for process' you use a lot by going into edit/keyboard shortcuts. I'd say the best way to learn is keep on painting, and when you think there is something that there may be a photoshop shortcut/process for go to the help bit and see if its under there, if not, hit google-thats pretty much where I got all my photoshop tit-bits from, that and reading/watching tutorials. Have fun:)