Fear of Digital art

[stikler999]

i have an immense fear of color, and painting and digital art. my regular pencil work and pen sketches i think are fine. i have anatomy issues which i'm working on and proportion issues. um but i really really want to get into finalizing my pics. i want to work in color and i want to paint, but i am afraid. i have been trying to conquer this fear by using my tablet and using paint as much as i can (usually in the DSG) i know practice practice practice is gonna be a big factor, but what else?? please advise i wanna work in concept art but i'm not gonna go anywhere with out color i suppose.... thanks

[John P.]

I don't know what software you're using, but if you're using Photoshop(maybe also if you're using Painter), just take one of your black&white drawings/sketches and make a new layer on top of it, and set that layer to Multiply. Then colour on that layer, on top of your drawing. This just to see your lines through the colour. Strictly not necessary, sometimes not even what you want at all, but as a start...

On the other hand, since this is digital, you can't ruin your drawings anyway(I must keep telling myself that, btw...), so you could just colour on top of it, at least if you have a backup(in case you should save over it by mistake).

There are colouring tutorials, like this one: http://www.sofos.com/adi/ [click the Tutorius link]

(there are more paint related tuts around too though, but since you wanna colour your drawings...)

But personally, I've just looked at objects around me and seen how they are coloured and how they look. As a start, you could also copy someone else's work, and see how they use colour - as long as you don't post it as your own work of course.

I haven't been working with colour myself for long - actually I just started when I got my Wacom Intuos in November last year.

Some people have problems with colouring, others have other difficulties.
Read some tuts and look around you, then practice.

Good luck.

[stikler999]

hey thanks!!! that link is really awesome, good way to start off on working with color. i'll have to try that out and see what i can come up with. really cool. i've been mostly using painter trying to get the hang of that cause i like the way it can duplicate traditional painting. but i may need to futz around in photoshop first to get some idea of working with color. i've been looking and drawing from life and studying colors, but i just can't seem to translate it into a painting or drawing. i guess it's just gonna take practice!! thanks again, good info!!

[KayCustomz]

Phong.com has enteresting things you can do in Photoshop, its not really art but more graphics to add to whateva

[rimwalker]

Thanks for the link Kay, that site looks cool.

You're not alone stikler, I know exactly how you feel.

:sigh:

[cotron]

everything's intimidating until you actually try it... but think of it this way, even if it looks god-awful, it's better than doing nothing. And the beauty of doing it digitally is that it's not really a waste of materials if you do fuck it up. I've been where you are, all you have to do is jump in headfirst.