Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Art Bug

If there is a disease for suddenly becoming addicted to drawing and painting, I have it. I have never before in my life been "good" at it I use that term loosely because I'm still not "great" but with all the practicing I've been doing, I'm really feeling good about it.

So good, in fact, that I'm feeling up to attempting digital painting.

I have spent the last few days reading tutorial after tutorial on techniques and all... I can comprehend it and don't think I'll have too much trouble for a beginner except for one thing:

My version of photoshop was released in the Stone Age. I have no graphics tablet, no advanced brushes... nothing. My poor little determined heart sank when I realized what I was missing.

Fortunately, I think I've found a few ways to circumnavigate it. By examining the tutorials, I realized that the brushes I have could be modified to be *close* to the ones recommended and, by using layers, I can achieve some of the same effects. It'll take more work and patience, but I think I can pull it off. I hope...

Anyway, here's the train of study I took, from cartoon to professional, in case anyone else has been wanting to get started or has been just wanting some extra reference...

1) Mark Crilley's YouTube tutorials: Basic structure and a lot of great eye tutorials. I couldn't draw a hand to save my life until I watched a few of his vids.

2) Dianae's Digital Painting tutorial: Amazing skin, eye, and effects tutorial. I plan to use it in my painting. A lot.

3) Leah Keeler's basic coloring tutorial: A grab-bag of quick reference quips. (she is my favorite artist)

4) Leah Keeler's hair painting tutorial: a basic instruction for hair painting that is made doubly awesome by her using Byakuya as her test subject. *glomp*

5) Dianae's hair painting tutorial: more in-depth than Leah's, but definitely takes way more time. I think I'll use a combination of the two for mine.

Even if no one looks at these, I felt it was only right to mention them since they've been such a great help. Arigato!

Sumimasen!

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"You see things and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were, and I say 'Why not?'"

~ George Bernard Shaw