[starman]

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39124852/

The list of things wrong with it could fill a small magazine, but I slapped this together in a few hours this morning, still learning my way around the Intuos, getting used to a tablet, and trying to learn parts of Photoshop I've never touched, even though I've been using it since version 2.

I'm not sure I'm going to post the original sketch, but it looks better than the digital version.

[macfantn]

I'd Hit it

[turtle777]

Keep it going. Don't get frustrated with the learning curve.

-t

[starman]

Originally Posted by macfantn

I'd Hit it

The sketch is actually cuter. This was my second attempt. The first one I did this morning was so bad that I had to start all over again.

[demograph68]

When did DA get a makeover? It's about time.

Oh, please post the original sketch.

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by starman

The sketch is actually cuter. This was my second attempt. The first one I did this morning was so bad that I had to start all over again.

Nice!

(you need to update your MacNN Wall of Sigs page )

[kick52]

i suck at tablet drawings, and my tablet is very basic. i only really use it for flash.

[euchomai]

I noticed that in this thread and the other tablet thread that all of you were using the tablet in Photoshop. Why attempt to do vector art in Photoshop with the tablet? Why not use Illustrator, it is much more conducive to what you are trying to do.

[loki74]

eh, i dont recall ever hearing mention of vector art? Looks to me like hes just doing good ol' digital sketching/painting.

At any rate, the best advice right now is to study anatomical reference. If possible, draw from a reference pic. For coloring tips, I suggest you check this out: PSG 7

If the anatomical or other problems are because of the tablet... well, I can't say from experience, but based on what ive read, that just comes with time.

cheers,
-loki

[alligator]

I agree with the other posters. Please post the original sketch. We can't get a comparison of how difficult it must be to digitize a sketch unless we have something to compare it with.

[starman]

This isn't vector art.

#2 is up

Image Two by ~starmanthx on deviantART

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by starman

This isn't vector art.

#2 is up

Image Two by ~starmanthx on deviantART

I'd hit it

[starman]

I botched the hair on #2. I love layers

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by macintologist

I'd hit it

Ditto

[starman]

Ok, I decided to not post the sketches of the two above yet. I think I can improve on them (a lot!) so instead I did a freehand sketch this morning (my frist without guidelines). I'll be working with this one next. Yes, I still have a problem with noses.

Scan Three by ~starmanthx on deviantART

[Salty]

That's funny, you have trouble with noses but seem to be able to pull off lips fine. I have the opposite problem, noses to me just, I've never had a problem drawing them, the nose is actually where I start nearly all my faces, but I can't draw lips worth crap!
I always just think of the nose as five lines. One middle one that has a nice lil bend in it, then the two curves around the end of the nostrils, and two lines one for each actual nostril. And then shading around. Works well for me

[hayesk]

You should buy a copy of Corel Painter. Seriously. It is way more suited toward art creation than Photoshop. Photoshop is for manipulating existing art.

Check out their gallery:
http://apps.corel.com/painterix/masters/gallery.html

[loki74]

Originally Posted by hayesk

You should buy a copy of Corel Painter. Seriously. It is way more suited toward art creation than Photoshop. Photoshop is for manipulating existing art.

Well the point is debatable. Some people pull off some pretty amazing stuff with either program; it really depends on the user.

=======

At any rate...OP, before you start worrying about digitizing stuff, I would get down your basic anatomical stuff. To be blunt, the proportions are highly inaccurate. The most obvious thing to me is the size of the eyes--they are way too big. Additionally, they do not seem to exist on the same plane as the front of the face, there is a definate perspective/foreshortening problem here, typical of 3/4 angles and even some profiles. The best thing to do is to draw from reference.

The other thing is the shape of the head. It definately seems off. Finally, the neck is very weird, imo. I think you need to accentuate the "V" shaped muscles that start around the jaw corner/ear area on either side of the head and converge at the base of the neck. Once again, drawing from reference would help greatly.

Finally, if you want this to translate well digitally, it is essential that you make long, clean strokes. And drawing within the outline of the hair will only slow you down come time for inking, be it digital or otherwise.

I also agree with salty--good job on the mouth. Although i do not find it that odd that the nose is tougher for you... its the same way for me. To each his own, I guess. The lips show about the proper perspective/forshortening of a 3/4 view, if the eyes and nose reflected this, it would be much better.

And let me say again--find some reference and draw from it. I cannot stress this enough. Unless you have a photographic memory or a ridiculous amount of experience, there is no way you will be able to perfectly draw up a face (or anything) out of thin air. Right now you are approximating--which is fine, its part of originality--but drawing from reference will vastly improve your ability to do so.

[starman]

Oh, I know I have a bit of work to do on the basics but if you saw how pathetic my stuff was from January, you'd see how much of an improvement this is. I use guides all the time, except for the sketch I posted above which is my first freehand one. I'll post my first attempt from January sometime later. It's scary.

[starman]

This one should be better.

Scan Six by ~starmanthx on deviantART

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by starman

This one should be better.

Scan Six by ~starmanthx on deviantART

Id hit it

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by C.A.T.S. CEO

Id hit it

I'm gonna tell mom

-t

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

I'm gonna tell mom

-t

STCU!!

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by C.A.T.S. CEO

STCU!!

-t

[Apple Pro Underwear]

star dude

here's a tip that helped me. take a photo, turn it BW and drop the opacity on it to 5%. Then paint on top of that. This is an excellent way for beginning tablet users to get good real quick.

[IceEnclosure]

it's cute and it makes me smile.

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by Apple Pro Underwear

here's a tip that helped me. take a photo, turn it BW and drop the opacity on it to 5%. Then paint on top of that. This is an excellent way for beginning tablet users to get good real quick.

Yeah. What he said.

[starman]

The problem I'm seeing is how these people on DA keep their strokes straight and not use vectors.

/boggle

Hats off to these people.

[Mastrap]

The problem, as I see it, is not so much mastery of the tablet, but that you can't yet draw. That's not meant in any way to be nasty, but your work displays a lack of basic life drawing skills.

But that's just a matter of training, almost anybody can be taught how to be at least a competent draftsman. Once you've achieved that, with pen and paper, I'd move on to digital work but no sooner.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

The problem, as I see it, is not so much mastery of the tablet, but that you can't yet draw. That's not meant in any way to be nasty, but your work displays a lack of basic life drawing skills.

But that's just a matter of training, almost anybody can be taught how to be at least a competent draftsman. Once you've achieved that, with pen and paper, I'd move on to digital work but no sooner.

i think Mike's goals are more oriented to learning more of photoshop/tablet dexterity and not drawing specifically. of course everybody can stand to become a better draftsman, but it depends on a person's interest level and goals.

[medicineman]

Keep trying. Getting used to the tablet can take some time. Put your line art down first. There are a lot of good art tutorials on the net. I don't do figures because I suck at them. But keep trying. Once you get your sketch the way you like it, then you can move to layers, opacity and blending. It all starts with a good sketch to begin with. Here is my gallery if you care to look. All done in Photoshop.
http://rdf.deviantart.com/gallery/

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by medicineman

Keep trying. Getting used to the tablet can take some time. Put your line art down first. There are a lot of good art tutorials on the net. I don't do figures because I suck at them. But keep trying. Once you get your sketch the way you like it, then you can move to layers, opacity and blending. It all starts with a good sketch to begin with. Here is my gallery if you care to look. All done in Photoshop.
rdf's deviantART Gallery

your veggies on page 1 is damn nice

[OwlBoy]

Draw a guy!

-Owl

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by starman

The problem I'm seeing is how these people on DA keep their strokes straight and not use vectors.

It's just practice I'd imagine.

I've drawn exactly one thing using my tablet (which is about two years old ). I took a photo of my son's GI Joe, then traced over it (shakily) using the tablet, then did a lot of scribbling and erasing before giving up. Not sure if I was getting the hang of it or not, as I haven't tried again. No use for it really. Glad it was free.

[medicineman]

Originally Posted by Apple Pro Underwear

your veggies on page 1 is damn nice

Thanks, but the idea was not to promote my stuff so much as to inspire Starman.

I went a long way about trying to say, that if your line art isn't good, the best coloring/shading isn't going to save it. Keep trying, the more mistakes you make, the more you learn. Keep off the 'background' layer and begin your drawing on the next layer. Good luck, and keep posting.

[starman]

mm,
Sorry, I forgot to thank you for your DA link. Lots of good stuff on there. I posted a sketch last night. I threw it together in 30 mins. APU is partially right - I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone. Since January, I've been working my ass off learning to draw people. (Ok, female people ). I still have to post my early crap so that you get an idea of how much better I've done since then. This "you can't draw" sh*t doesn't sit well with me since I DO know how to draw, I just have to refine everything now.

The sketch I did on Saturday morning was a serious accomplishment for me because it was the first time I slapped something together with no tools, no guidelines, nothing. I envisioned it when I woke up, and ran downstairs to get it on paper. It's by far not the best sketch on the planet, but it's not so f'n hideous that I'm going to give up.

My problems are:
noses
eyes at different angles
cheekbones

And I still draw hair like in the comics which I really have to get out of the habit of doing.

Anyway, back to APU's comment. I'm taking some of the more decent stuff I have and I'm trying to learn Photoshop/Painter so that I can continue learning to draw and learn the digital side of it in parallel. I did a sketch on Sunday that looked badass, and when I popped it into Painter, it looked like sh*t. I actually got better at using the tablet but now I have a problem using the tools of the apps. I can do it on paper with colored pencils, but using digital apps are not working well for me just yet.

And to Owlboy: no (there's a reason why...I'll explain next time I see you in WoW)

[starman]

Ok, so after practicing a bit more....

Image Thirteen Sketch by ~starmanthx on deviantART

[Sbtrfuge]

Originally Posted by Mastrap 

The problem, as I see it, is not so much mastery of the tablet, but that you can't yet draw. That's not meant in any way to be nasty, but your work displays a lack of basic life drawing skills.

But that's just a matter of training, almost anybody can be taught how to be at least a competent draftsman. Once you've achieved that, with pen and paper, I'd move on to digital work but no sooner.

Agreed. You're drawing what you know, not what you see. Lines around the entire nose, stuff like that, NEVER exist in real life. Look at a picture. Now use your brain to smash that image into a 2 dimensional plane. Now notice that nobody has eyes or noses or anything, it's just shapes of different colors, and almost NEVER lines between colors.

Tip for faces, just draw shadows under the nose, shadow on the upper lip, and a shadow under the lower lip.

[Sbtrfuge]

Originally Posted by starman 

Ok, so after practicing a bit more....

Image Thirteen Sketch by ~starmanthx on deviantART

Eyes: Way too big, and in the wrong spot
Nose: way too small
Mouth: Wrong.

Practice drawing from photos first. This anime 'zelda' style is just crap unless you can draw normally first.

[OwlBoy]

Originally Posted by Sbtrfuge 

Practice drawing from photos first. This anime 'zelda' style is just crap unless you can draw normally first.

Exactly.

If you can not draw in true proportions, then you can not take that and morph / distort it in a believable way .

-Owl

[sknapp351]

One of the worst things you can do is to focus on how to draw eyes, noses or mouths. By that I mean if you spend your time learning how to properly draw eyes from a profile, then all your profile drawings will have the same eyes. When learning to draw anything it is important to make yourself keep in mind that it is all about spatial relationships. Cézanne's theory that all things can bee seen as a conglomeration of simple forms ( such as a sphere, cone, or cylinder ) is important here. It is all about studying what is in front of you, and learning exactly where the eye of that person is in relationship to the nose, and brow, and how the lid really sets. It is important to know the basic rules of proportion and placement, but if that is exclusively how you learn to draw people then all your drawings will look alike and androgynous. Bribe friends to sit for you with frozen pizza and cheap beer. Also, you should look for a local art society. They will often have live model drawing sessions that are usually 5 bucks or so to get in for 3 or 4 hours. And there the girls are usually naked, but so are the men.
SAm

[sknapp351]

Originally Posted by Sbtrfuge 

Eyes: Way too big, and in the wrong spot
Nose: way too small
Mouth: Wrong.

Practice drawing from photos first. This anime 'zelda' style is just crap unless you can draw normally first.

I tried using photos when I was in Under Grad. I didn't find them to be nearly as useful as life drawing. Unless of course you have hi res images and a large format printer.

[Sbtrfuge]

Photos, to me, where the first step in training my brain to smash things from real life onto a 2 dimensional plane. Plus, they're really easy to practice from, and really easy to see how tricky objects have simple 2 dimensional shapes.

[Dakar²]

What tablet do you have? Because I absolutely despise mine (the plastic on plastic feel sucks)

[starman]

Intuos 3

[Dakar²]

How much did that puppy run you (if you don't mind)

(What size anyway?)

[starman]

Oh, I don't remember. A lot . It's not the biggest one, though. Just look it up on compusa.com, that's where I got it from.

[Dakar²]

Mmm... After the let down of the $100 I got I don't think I could buy one without trying it out somewhere.

I really need to make up a reason for them to get us one at work.

[starman]

The Graphire I have was a total piece of ****. My pen kept sliding all over the place. With the Intuos you get SOME traction.

[Dakar²]

Yes I own the lowly graphire.

And I like traction.