tttia

Thanks :) And I am hoping to...doing a daily sketch thread on a different forum, so trying to keep up!

Liking the water shadows :) grass...just like anything else I guess, lay down base shading then put the detail...but it is a pain.

Thanks folks :) And yes Gandorf a tablet helps tremendously in my opinion, so much more natural.

Thanks, good to see your still around :) ah, kind of a grand-father clause then?

There are a couple of ways to do what Gs is saying. 1. Smooth shading: Ideally you want less line than these have. 2. Crosshatching: In either case the goal is to think in patches of dark and light rather than simple lines. Think of it as painting with a pencil.

Thanks :) Incidentally, anyone can use the sig. Find a picture of a flower somewhere :) or just go get a real flower, either way. The goal is to apply the principles, not do the exact flower.

This is a brief walkthrough of painting a flower. I used Painter 9, but you could use nearly any program that has brushes and transparency etc. Step 1: I always start in a layer above the canvas in case I want to put a background later. Block out the shapes. Use an opaque brush with fairly hard edges. I used the default acrylic brush in Painter just to make it simple. Part of this first step is to realize which parts overlap others. Some elements you may want to wait to block in for later. I decided to paint the inner parts of the flower after I did the rest to make sure that it overlapped correctly. Step 2: Start a new layer. Define the shadows and shape. Try to ignore the color of the flower for now and just look for shadows and light. Use a more transparent brush. I went down to about 10% opacity for this step. That enables you to make smoother transitions as you work the tone in. (The bumpy areas are just jpeg artifacts since I saved at low quality...ignore them). Step 3: Start a new layer. Now you can begin adding the actual color pattern of the flower. Step 4: Start a new layer (yes, I start a new layer for everything!) Next comes the detail work. Don't rush this part. I found it easiest to use a detail acrylic brush here, about 6-7 pixels wide. I started with the darker lines. Next to the darker ones are often lighter ones as the lines are acutally ridges in the flower. You may also notice the stem placement has changed. This is the advantage to doing everything in its own layer. It is easy to change one element. Step 5: Start a new Layer. Add the overlapping parts of the flower. You are finished!

I have been doing pen and pencil stuff lately, which I haven't gotten around to scanning. But did these three in painter the last couple of days. It is harder to do the precise lines than when using pen, but fun nonetheless. Working on getting different nuances in faces. Also working on crosshatching which is not a strong point of mine.

I am glad you posted this. I just stopped by again to see how things were going and realized that you can't sell sigs anymore. I was just about to ask what the impact has been when I saw this thread! Anyway, I think this in some ways is a good thing. Maybe I should try to stop in more often now. Removing the profit motive is the best way to get to just the art.

looks like they changed the software package and it no longer includes ps elements. And the graphire 3 there doesn't have painter...just ps elements and....pinnacle studio? That is odd. Why would it package a video app?

np :) that link you gave is to the newer one. The one I gave is the graphire 3, but truthfully, they both work fine for most tasks. There is a "tablet" of sorts that costs 1k plus. It is a tablet pc! Also, wacom sells a cintique..which is an lcd monitor that you can draw directly on. They are well over a grand.

wow, uk shopping sites are a pain...anyway , check out this one: http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformati ... liate=2009

Actually 80 might very well buy one. A. Yes, go with wacom. I have heard of a few recent ones that are decent, but you know that wacom has staying power. B. There is no lag unless your computer is slow. C. Unless you need professional tools the wacome graphire is cheap, very usable, and comes with a good software package.

Nice looking orange there venomai. Are you using essentially a pixeling technique on the dew? I recently read a tutorial that used smoething like that

Yeah, I know, I posted this already in its own thread, but I am trying to keep track of these things. It is easier to find them when this thread is closer to the top. Reference used on this one, painter 7, bout 3 or 4 hours

nice froggy :) like the lighting. Here is today's work. More than one hour I am afraid. Done in Paintshop Pro. Just got it for work and thought I would see how it paints. I like it so far. No reference.

er double.

No, it's a pretty expensive buy actually. You can get something like OpenCanvas or even Photoshop Elements, though, which are both good. OpenCanvas is supposedly free.. tttia might know where to get it free, all I've been able to find is a 30-day trial. :?: I was hosting it, but tip won't let me put a link, security issues I assume. Try this program. I think it is more full featured than open canvas, and is free. http://www.download.com/Deep-Paint/3000 ... ag=lst-0-1

Nice work and blending on that tree venomai :) no opacity works require some patience (and the alt key!) Good horse attempt jabraulter. I have been away on business, but hope to get back to things soon.

Welcome back :)

Thanks, this one had somewhat limited coloration as far as green, blue pigments, though there were some purple. But I wanted to stay close to the original lighting.

I don't see much of an issue with the neck actually. It is just supposed to be a more muscular fellow. Some people have thick necks. And as for the highlights, purple skin tones etc., there are purple, green, etc. tones in skin. Mostl likely they will become somewhat more subtle as he finishes up. Also certain lighting can certainly cause that effect.

Pretty good so far. The shaded sections on the cheeks etc. seem a bit too round. They jump out a bit more that way. But otherwise, coming along nicely.

Lol, I am well aware of that :) In fact I have one on the sticky already for painting faces. But everyone uses some different techniques. for instance on this one I blew out the saturation on the reference at one point to be better able to see the skin tones more easily. I didn't know to do that previously. Also , especially in painter, etc. there are many brush setting options, tool options etc.