questions about pixels and drawing in PS

[Mayday]

when i open a new document, what should i set the pixels number to? or what pixels should i be drawing in. i dont really understand pixels. whenever i draw i always see these little tiny gaps in my lines. why isnt it smooth? when i finish my drawing and post it in the forums will the final product show up with all those gaps in my lines?

[.:J/A\X:.]

I usually paint on a pretty big canvas, but I zoom out so it fits on my screen. Then if I feel the need to zoom in for more detail, I'll have the ability to zoom in quite a few times before I start to actually see pixels. Then when I'm finished I re-size my image for posting.

so, for example: I start with a 1000px by 650px canvas. then, I zoom out so it fits on my screen. When I'm finished painting, I re-size my entire image to maybe 500px by 250px or whatever keeps the dimensions relatively in proportion.

[Mayday]

i see.. how do you resize the image when your done with it? is there a tutorial about all this somewhere on the forums?

[bizarre]

imagine, if you will, a big quilt.

A big quilt made of lots of squares.

Those squares, in this imaginary tale, are called Pixels.

The more squares you have, the more detailed the quilt can be.

If you imagine a mosaic, and all the little chips of colored tile are pixels, then you've got the right idea.

to resize, go to image>image size and then change your resolution.

[Mayday]

imagine, if you will, a big quilt.

A big quilt made of lots of squares.

Those squares, in this imaginary tale, are called Pixels.

The more squares you have, the more detailed the quilt can be.

If you imagine a mosaic, and all the little chips of colored tile are pixels, then you've got the right idea.

to resize, go to image>image size and then change your resolution.

ahha. so what would be a good resolution to start with when i open a brand new document? and does that method of resizing your image mean that you can always change the resolution of your document no matter what you set it as to begin with?

i wish i had some kind of visual demonstration of what would be good resolution for website posting and what would be bad resolution.

[bizarre]

Mayday, I can make that happen- I've been making a few of these 'tutorial dvd's' lately, I can make one for you real quick.

in the meantime:

check out this thread

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163890

[bizarre]

actually, an easier way-

Look at your favorite artist's website. notice the resolution (pixel dimensions) of their work, and use that.

for web, the typical dimensions are
640*480
1024*768

As you get used to the different sizes and dimensions you'll know what to do.

And resizing an image just stretches or shrinks the image, so if you paint something low-res and then resize it to high-res, it's gonna look blurry and aliased and horrible. garbage in, garbage out.

[Mayday]

Mayday, I can make that happen- I've been making a few of these 'tutorial dvd's' lately, I can make one for you real quick.

in the meantime:

check out this thread

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163890

awesome dude. your a saint. and i have already done what you said to do about checking out my fav artists website. i tried working on a but, if resizeing your image makes it blurry then whats the point of resizing it in the first place? most of his are are like 500px X 700px (give or take). but when i open a docment in PS with those coordinates it just seems too small to draw on. but on the artists website its like PERFECT size that i want to show my work in. this is so frustrating.

[Stahr]

Work as big as your computer can manage, and as big as you need it to be printed on.
the easiest way is to use the presets in Photoshop, there is international papers like A4, that would be a good starting ground for most, you can always crop it to your liking of course. A4 in 300 dpi is 2480*3508 pixels. But if your computer is lag free with brushes at double that canvas size, go for it.
for publishing your images on the web you can always downsize, and sharpen if needed.

[bizarre]

you can zoom in and out if the canvas seems 'too small'.

resizing blurs only if you up-res. If you blow up a postage stamp to be the size of a cd cover, it'll be blurry.