Tips for painting with a tablet

[Mr_Black]

Hello im new here if you havent guessed it, and im here to ask if anyone has any useful tips for drawing and painting with a tablet. And as i understand the tablet is basically a digitalized paintbrush so if you have any useful to tell me about any aspect of art, then please do as im in desperate need of help.

[Evil_Sloth]

practice and experiment.

[Mr_Black]

I know, lord knows ive tried that, but it all looks the same, bland and well lets face it, shit. Heres an example

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/Leon-Hart/MrRoboto.jpg







I need knowlege of techniques that i can apply.

[Idiot Apathy]

Umm, I think I remember feeling this way, that there is a shortcut to these things. Like maybe a certain brush at certain settings would make me better. It may, temporarily but you really just need to study and practice. It's not so much of "using" the tablet as it is drawing and painting skills.

Every professional on this site has dedicated years of their lives to get where they are now and aren't even close to where they'd like to be.

[figure2]

while I know we see a lot of these tablet technique posts, I recently finished a series of 34 small illustrations in which I colored over scanned line art. As far as I am concerned, 34 illustrations is lots of practice. I found that painting with a tablet seems to take longer than painting with natural media. Part of the problem is that if I had been painting these with watercolor, gouache or acrylic, I am fairly certain I could have dashed them off with a wash & some quick details. But with a tablet, the image fills your screen and what is in actuality a fairly small image becomes full-size, prompting you to add more detail than is needed and takes the same time a much larger image would take.

So in the spirit of this post, I wouldn't mind some pointers on how to work more efficiently with a tablet.

[Idiot Apathy]

Ok, hmm.

Don't zoom any further than 100% or even less if you can help it until you have blocked everything in and are ready to work on the details. This will also help create a more cohesive piece.

If your familar with quick traditional techniques on paper then why don't you try and simulate them with painter?

Don't be afraid to start really small with a drawing and then upsize. This will help you block everything in really quickly.

Hmm, all I can think of right now, hopefully some others have more ideas.

[seth1]

When using a tablet try not to really think of it as a tablet think it as a pencil or a brush! You can have your tablet on brush sentivity to!

Maybe this will help
http://img343.imageshack.us/img343/6842/helpstuff2sw.jpg

[figure2]

Thanks for the tip. It's clear to me that I just need to become as comforable with a stylus as I am with a pencil or brush. When learning a new medium it just takes time to ease into my comfort level.

[Idiot Apathy]

Yup! And other than that learn the software too!

[figure2]

Yup! And other than that learn the software too!The software is not the problem. I am completely comfortable in PS and to a lesser degree, Painter. I just need to establish work habits with a stylus that will allow me to work faster. As I mentioned above, the fact that you can magnify your work to fill the screen prompts me to add details that may not be necessary considering the artwork's actual size. Adding unnecessary detail can eat up time and I need to find ways to work smarter & more efficiently.

[Idiot Apathy]

That's true but for others if not you learning the ins and outs of the software will save you a lot of time as well, almost like using quick washes there are ways to paint quickly as well.

[figure2]

...almost like using quick washes there are ways to paint quickly as well.Other than setting the brush's size & transparency to respond to the stylus pressure and using layer transparency & other effects, what are you suggesting?

[Idiot Apathy]

Most of the stuff is very basic like the tools etc, and the brush palette. Or exactly how the color picker works in both PS and Painter.

Maybe for example look at the brushes used in the Speed Painting Thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=624072#post624072). Most of these are photoshop. Looking around I notice you know about these though.

A good one on making custom brushes in PS with texture from Mike Corriero:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52822

Check out Sparth's Homepage for some bizarre processes on cloning etc in PS:
http://www.sparth.com/gallery/index.php?cat=6

All I know is it's taken me quite awhile to feel that I've gotten a firm grip on Painter, there was so much I didn't know in the beginning. After all you can't paint well with oils if you don't know how they work right?

[bfowler]

I too am trying to cross over from traditional media to digital. One thing that still gets me is how to do a proper splatter.

With regular wet media I use the good old toothbrush method. How can I get the same results in PS.

Thanks.

[figure2]

One thing that still gets me is how to do a proper splatter. With regular wet media I use the good old toothbrush method. How can I get the same results in PS.Interesting problem. The way I would approach it would be to combine natural & digital. Take your toothbrush and spatter several white pieces of paper wih black ink. Scan the spatter patterns in greyscale and use the best one or combine the patterns to create a reusable master. Invert the image so the spatters are white and the background is black.

You could now do one of 2 things with the image: paste the reversed spatter image into a layer mask so whatever content is on the layer will be only visible through the spatter mask. Or, paste the reversed image into a new channel and name the channel "spatter." From the selection menu, choose "Load Selection" & choose the Spatter channel. Fill the selection with whatever color or pattern you want.

Now that I look at my post and all these steps, no wonder things take me a bit longer :[ However as spatter goes, I can't think of another way to do it.

[Idiot Apathy]

Well Painter has some splatterlike tools but it will probably be bit harder in PS. This is what came to mind for me though:
Created a few circles with the default round brush, low hardness and wet edges. Made this into a brush and then adjusted what I need to in the brushes palette. Less than like 5 minutes all told.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/Ragnarok27/1293223b.jpg
Not sure if this was what you were looking for, if it is let me know and I'll go into more detail. If it isn't, why don't you provide a link to a sample of what your looking for and well see what we can do!