yet another painfully newbish thread

[thecosmicgoose]

Hola folks. so far everyone here has been really great with all my pestering and the questions and the heyheyhey. got another one for ya. this image will help illistrait what im asking.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/thecosmicgoose/strokequestion.jpg


the top half is about the direction of your strokes when painting. since this can establish a texture thats visable in your finished painting, its kind of important. what stroke patterns do you guys find most effective?

the bottom half is a close up of the first sphere. you can see the banding effect im having trouble with. whats the best way to smooth that out some? not completely mind, i'd still like some of the texture to show through, but not so much as that.

thanks!

[Dave_]

The technique I use (mind you, I haven't painted a lot yet) is to take the color between those that you want to mix and paint over the 'lines' between the 2 colors.

Alternatively, you could google 'Digital blending techniques' or something in that direction.

[TASmith]

Exactly, just make sure you zoom in, use a thinner brush, and lower your opacity. If that doesn't work, you can always switch for a moment to a soft round brush.

[J Wilson]

D) All of the above (to some degree)

"A" is a good place to start because in a very neutral light set up, the values will tend to drop off predictably like those rings. You can smooth out the transition like Dave_ said by painting a transition color/tone over the seams. Getting a smooth gradation of values is simply practice and taking your time.

The "all of the above" comes in because 9 times out of 10, a sphere won't really be lit that neutrally. There may be odd reflected lights, shadows, etc that need to be taken into account, and painting those you'll want to watch the direction they move in and paint them in the way that makes the most sense. Even a simple sphere isn't always simple. You need to always be using your eyes and brain, especially when you'll be tempted to stick to a formula.

Edit: Even though a sphere seems to be something you can draw based strictly on theory, I'd really recommend practicing by actually setting up a small sphere with lighting.

[mundanity]

If I'm using photoshop, I use the colour picker to pick up a colour somewhere between the two values and then paint that into the other two. And then I do that to the next part, and so on and so forth. I use a mostly hard brush to do this, with the opacity set to my pen pressure. Often you have to go back and adjust your darks and lights with this technique, and you always have to go in and pick a colour between the one you've just laid down and the one you were putting it on top of, but I've found it gives me a more solid look to whatever object I'm painting rather than fiddling with opacity and erasing or using a soft-edge brush. Just keep blending and blending until it's as smooth as you want it.