Need advice about digital drawing.

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Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby spiritmoon » Fri Jan 15, 2016 5:16 pm

Hey people of the Eldemore world! I love drawing, and Im sort of good at hand drawing (pencil and paper) but I want to go digital...
The only problem is... I'm not very good at technology.
I've looked at a ton of different websites and items.
Now, I'm sure theres already a thread like this out there but.... I just really don't know what to do.

I've heard about tablets (Like an I-pad but made for digital drawing) but I don't have to slightest idea how to use one or how to get it started...

Also, I've seen stuff about deviant art and all that stuff. Again, I don't know how to use it or what to do O.O...

Oh ^.^' And... the products sort of have to be within a good price range. Seeing as I'm still in school and relying on my parents to get me such items.

Anyway, thanks for reading!
~spirit


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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby Sphye » Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:55 pm

Hi, Spiritmoon!~ ^v^
Having a drawing tablet is incredibly helpful for digital art. When using a mouse, not only is your range of motion more limited, but you can't use pen sensitivity to alter your brush strokes. Having a tablet allows you to use the same motions as you would use for traditional drawing, which makes anything except, perhaps, a straight line far easier. It also allows you to control the thickness of your lines within a single stroke based on how softly your press the pen.
Wacom tablets are the most well-known brand of drawing tablets. My own is a Wacom Bamboo Splash tablet. It's not super fancy, but it's effective nonetheless. It doesn't appear to be on the Wacom website anymore, but several other models of tablet can be found there instead.

DeviantArt is a website for sharing art. If you have an account, you can upload image files from your computer with it, as well as leave comments on the art that others have uploaded. It has a very large community, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with it to be able to give much insight on the atmosphere of the community. ^^
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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby spiritmoon » Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:05 am

Sphye wrote:
Hi, Spiritmoon!~ ^v^
Having a drawing tablet is incredibly helpful for digital art. When using a mouse, not only is your range of motion more limited, but you can't use pen sensitivity to alter your brush strokes. Having a tablet allows you to use the same motions as you would use for traditional drawing, which makes anything except, perhaps, a straight line far easier. It also allows you to control the thickness of your lines within a single stroke based on how softly your press the pen.
Wacom tablets are the most well-known brand of drawing tablets. My own is a Wacom Bamboo Splash tablet. It's not super fancy, but it's effective nonetheless. It doesn't appear to be on the Wacom website anymore, but several other models of tablet can be found there instead.

DeviantArt is a website for sharing art. If you have an account, you can upload image files from your computer with it, as well as leave comments on the art that others have uploaded. It has a very large community, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with it to be able to give much insight on the atmosphere of the community. ^^


Hello Sphye :D Thank you for answering so fast! Do you need to download anything on the tablet? And do you need a specific pen?
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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby Sphye » Sat Jan 16, 2016 12:35 pm

spiritmoon wrote:Hello Sphye :D Thank you for answering so fast! Do you need to download anything on the tablet? And do you need a specific pen?

At least for the model I have, the tablet isn't so much like its own device, but rather an extension of your computer in the same way that a mouse is. Some are wireless, but plenty plug in in the same way that a mouse does. It's like having a mouse that is made specifically to allow you to mimic using a pen or brush. Tablets usually come with a disc to download to your computer to allow the tablet to work, sometimes even including extras if advertised, such as art programs or editing programs.
The pen that you need to use the tablet is sold with the tablet. ^v^
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by ebriose.
"But I still hold out hope that maybe someday
I'll be worth more than all the silence left in my way"

♪♪♪

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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby spiritmoon » Sat Jan 16, 2016 3:41 pm

Sphye wrote:
At least for the model I have, the tablet isn't so much like its own device, but rather an extension of your computer in the same way that a mouse is. Some are wireless, but plenty plug in in the same way that a mouse does. It's like having a mouse that is made specifically to allow you to mimic using a pen or brush. Tablets usually come with a disc to download to your computer to allow the tablet to work, sometimes even including extras if advertised, such as art programs or editing programs.
The pen that you need to use the tablet is sold with the tablet. ^v^


Okay so ... you need a computer program to match the tablet? (If so, what program would you recommend?)
I was randomly looking through the forums and i saw some of your art :O!! Its soo good!!
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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby Sphye » Sat Jan 16, 2016 4:06 pm

spiritmoon wrote:
Sphye wrote:
At least for the model I have, the tablet isn't so much like its own device, but rather an extension of your computer in the same way that a mouse is. Some are wireless, but plenty plug in in the same way that a mouse does. It's like having a mouse that is made specifically to allow you to mimic using a pen or brush. Tablets usually come with a disc to download to your computer to allow the tablet to work, sometimes even including extras if advertised, such as art programs or editing programs.
The pen that you need to use the tablet is sold with the tablet. ^v^


Okay so ... you need a computer program to match the tablet? (If so, what program would you recommend?)
I was randomly looking through the forums and i saw some of your art :O!! Its soo good!!

Thank you!

The disc that comes with your tablet should be for setting up the tablet driver and similar things to allow it to work in general. Drawing or editing programs, like Photoshop, Paint Tool SAI, or Fire Alpaca, are used to give you the canvas to work with, as well as the ability to switch between brushes to mimic using different tools. I use Paint Tool SAI, myself. ^^
Image
by ebriose.
"But I still hold out hope that maybe someday
I'll be worth more than all the silence left in my way"

♪♪♪

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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby spiritmoon » Sat Jan 16, 2016 7:33 pm

Do you need to pay for these programs?
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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby Sphye » Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:55 pm

spiritmoon wrote:Do you need to pay for these programs?

Fire Alpaca is free, I believe older versions of Photoshop can be gotten for free, and Paint Tool SAI has a free trial for one month. The full versions of Photoshop and SAI do need to be bought, though. I'm not sure about other programs.
Image
by ebriose.
"But I still hold out hope that maybe someday
I'll be worth more than all the silence left in my way"

♪♪♪

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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby spiritmoon » Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:13 am

Okay cool! thank you a ton
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Re: Need advice about digital drawing.

Postby ElementalInsanity » Thu Jan 21, 2016 7:07 pm

I've actually been looking into this myself so I'm gonna add to this discussion instead of making my own thread. X3
I have not done any digital drawing whatsoever, but I'm very good at just using a pencil.
I have some friends who use Wacom and suggest this tablet for me. (it also has an eraser on the other side which is a driving factor in me getting it because yay erasers)
I guess I'm just curious as far as how easy digital art is with certain programs, what programs are best, etc? I'm mainly wanting to start drawing art of human characters and such and that would be why I'd get a tablet at all. There just seems like there's so many cool things you can do with and to characters digitally compared to pencil and paper.
So what programs are recommended? Are these recommended ones free or not?
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