New to digital painting

[Pennan]

Hello guys. :)
This is my first post here so I'm starting with a boring presentation. I'm 19 years old, and have been drawing with ordinary pen and papper as long as I can remember, mostly fantasty and Sci-fic. Painting and drawing has allways been one of my biggest interests. I went to an art-gymnasium for a couple of years but didn´t learn anything there to be honest. I don't have any experience or knownledge about digital painting at all, but I really want to learn. I'm a total newbie to this. I just recieved my Wacom Intous3 9x12 and want to start for real now. I've saved alot of tutorials from this and other sites but want to ask some questions here first. Hope you can answer some of them. And I'm really sorry if there are other threads like this. Thank you all!

I just installed Photoshop CS2 and I'm sketching at the moment. But when I'm sketching with the brush tool the lines are so "pixeled", very "blocky" if you know what I mean. They are not straight like all the sketches here. What´s wrong? Is PS CS2 wrong program for this or should I use other tools or change some settings? I just installed it, opened a document and started. Should I do something before I begin sketching? I've heard something about layers before you sketch, but I don't know what that means. Do you know any good beginer tutorials?

Sorry for all the questions but a newbie like me really need help, tips and guidenace. :)

Thanks!


//Pennan

[skvv]

a. is the software up to date? install latest drivers for wacom and update photoshop.

also, install USB drivers if you haven't.

i know exactly what you're talking about and got it a lonnng time ago (or sometimes when i format). it's definitely a software issue.

[Pennan]

Thanks!
But I think I've done all of that. I installed PSCS2 and Corel Painter and updated them, and the Wacom is updated too. Gah! :/

[atom246]

Hi when you open up a new document try playing with the size resolution and remember if you zoom in a draw it will become a bit more blocky. I''ve just start using a wacom too i know what you mean it is very daunting, but there are some useful tutorials on youtube or Google about basic digital inking and colouring. Let me know how your getting on then you can give me some advice all the best Atom246.

[TheDrawingIrish]

Most people say that Painter is better for sketching lines / inking drawings. And the camps are pretty even between Photoshop and Painter for coloring.

I use Alias sketchbook pro for drawing, and I zoom in really far in photoshop to ink things (I'd like to give painter a try and see if its any different for me... or even a newer version of PS I guess).

Make sure you're pencil brush in photoshop has smoothing on, and has spacing set to 1%, this might also be causing some of your issues.

When I was sketching in photoshop (before sketchbook pro), I had a pencil textured brush set up, and had the pen pressure on "size" for small pencil brush sizes, and size with a bit of opacity for larger sizes. This worked for simulating the pencil a bit better than the standard brush. I'll see if I can find the brush and I'll post it for you.

[tecnophreak]

sounds like you are having issues with the resolution. when opening a new document, checke the resolution box to see what the size is. A resolution of 72 ppi (or pixels-per-inch) is standard for the web. note, that the web is not your HD-tv, so most everything is only at a resolution that is passable when it comes to viewing. High-quality resolution is around 300 ppi, and what almost every digi-painter uses when creating a document (not to mention CMYK settings, and NOT the default RGB. why? because CMYK is for printing, and RGB is for web. Its an optical vs ink viewing thing)

So anyway, check and make sure those are set correctly, and if your still having a problem, let us know!

[bumskee]

are you using a brush tool? if you are using a pencil tool it's jagged.. it's not really a pencil as you would imagine..

[ArtisticMind]

Pennan! your problem has solved or not? I think tecnophreak is right.

[Pennan]

Yes. The problem is solved. Tecnophreak was right, I just changed the resolution from 72 ppi to 300 and it works great.

Thank you all for your help!