Need artist help

[yukishiro128]

~(similar thread in New Project Ideas section)~

Hello all. Question for all resident artists with experience--what do you use??!! I have a birthday in two weeks and my parents have agreed to buy me tools for drawing, but I can't decide if I should go all computer, half computer and half manual, or all manual. For example, is Photoshop a good program or would a graphics tablet and something like Adobe Illustrator be better?? Or maybe I should ink it and clean it up myself and just scan it in?? I'M LOST!!

Please give me some tips! I don't even have a scanner, for gosh sakes!

Thanks, yuki <3.

[mechana2015]

I vary, depending on the project. I have done pieces that are all manual, all computer or myriad combinations of the two, including projects incorporating 2-3 programs with hand drawn work. For starters, get a scanner. Drawing straight into a computer is quite a challange for most artists, especially with out a tablet. I rarely do this.

The remainder of the aspects, confronted in order:

Photoshop is a great program for compositing images and some types of coloring and illustration, and it is a fantastic overall tool for artwork. If you were limited to one program, this is the one I'd suggest. Painter, by corel is stronger at painting, but isn't very strong at anything like paneling, or toning, for example. Illustrator is an EXTREMELY limited program. It has very little painting ability, but it good for lineart and to a degree, cel shading. Illustrator also does letterforms the best.

A tablet is pretty much useless with illustrator (there is one really good use, but thats it), but is a fantastic combination with Photoshop or Painter.

Inking and scanning is always a viable option, though you probably would want a program to clean the image some. Photoshop covers this well.

[Raiden no Kishi]

If you're just a beginner like me, go with a scanner and work manually. Wait until you have a firm grasp of the fundamentals before you worry about shiny computerized twinklies. You want a scanner ASAP so you can upload your artwork and get critique/advice.

.rai//

[Dante]

I use photoshop ellements and paint shop pro 7, but all my images are drawn first by hand, and then I scan them in, ink them in various layers and color them in the layer below the inking (You can ink on a computer by having a layer open above the image and tracing the part you want to ink with a paint brush of a certain size). There are a ton of tricks you can learn from places like tutorialized.com and what not (places with lots of photoshop tutorials). However, I would reccomend the following, get the GIMP, it's free and you should probobably master that before investing in ever more stuff on the net. Thus yes, a scanner is the best tool and then you can bring your pics into the GIMP and work on coloring them if you have the patience for such. If not just draw them by hand and then you can follow the above suggestions. One more thing, I NEVER use fancy art supplies for my drawings, I may make use of a sketch pad because the paper grips the pencil led a little better, but I make almost exclusive use out of mechanical pencils for my drawings (this really drove my art teachers bananas way back when).

(PS, if you don't have a scanner you might be able to find one you can use for free at a local library or school. If you can use it for free just make a bunch of drawings, and then take a trip down to scan them all in at once (bringing them home on a form of media or e-mailing them to yourself). That and the GIMP will make drawing really really cheap and you can see if you want to continue onward with it)

[Puguni]

Photohop, definitely. I have a majorly outdated Photoshop, and it's still good. Whethr you get a scanner or not is up to you, really. I have a scanner, which I use sometimes, but not all the time because it's a pain to hook up. I mostly just use my tablet to get things done and the pen tool on Photoshop.

[c-girl]

PHOTOSHOP CS2 IS SO AWESOME!! >^.^< Love it~<3 It's even better if you get a wacom pad. It's so much easier to use that way. >0.0< But with or without the wacom pad. It's pretty flippin' sweet. They also have a Photoshop CS3 just came out, but I'm not sure how much different it is from CS2. There's also a new wacom pad out, but a few people have said the last one is better. >"< Things such as a wacom pad and photoshop, y'know, pretty much stuff that has to do with graphic arts, are updated quite frequently. Some have very little change from the one before them. Be sure to look on the web to see what's hot and what's not about a program or electronic art device. If you look on other websites dedicated to graphic arts and other digital art I'm sure you'll get a lot more sophisticated and knowledgable advice and opinions on this type o' thing. - Be sure to check the main website for your program too before buying! ~<3
Hope that helps ya. >^.^< ~<3

[Mave]

I use the "half manual/half computer" method. I ink on paper, scan and then, digitally polish the rest of the image. I don't recommend drawing on computer as that would require you to get more equipment, which are not cheap. I have a tablet but I still don't feel comfortable drawing linearts with it.

Traditional Inking: Unlike what art suppliers would tell you, you don't need premium or expensive tools. I use your good old average pens and paper to draw.

Scanner: This is a must-have if you want to get your images online and you're inking manually. Scanners aren't that expensive anymore but that really depends on your budget. Other alternatives would be find a scanner in the library, someone's office or make friends with someone who has one. XD

If you have more than enough in your budget, then go for...

Graphic program: Photoshop is what I use but it costs a bomb and if you've never used an art program before, be ready to spend some time learning how to use it. It took me a few good years before I finally figured out standard procedures for myself. If you cannot afford Photoshop, I'd say give GIMP a try.

Tablet: IMO, it's best to have a tablet to compliment your work using the graphic programs. But that is not cheap.....

***************************************

If a scanner is all you can afford, go for it! All is not lost. Some comics get by well by inking alone. I think cleaning up the files using GIMP and a mouse should suffice.

Worse come to worse, if you really need it, you can ask CAA members who have Photoshop to help you with coloring or toning needs.

[yukishiro128]

Thanks, everyone! This is vital stuff! Parents shall be informed...(runs away to find parents). Still open to advice...ALWAYS. ^__^;;;

[chibiphonebooth]

i have a tablet, painter, and a scanner (back at home)

If I were to reccomend anything first, i would probably reccomend Painter or photoshop and a scanner.

I believe Painter is cheaper than photoshop, so in that case, you could maybe use the extra money to get a scanner too.

my tablet cost $100.
painter 8 with manual was about... um i think $100 but i'm not sure.
dunno how much my scanner was. XD


for examples of painter 8, you can go to my art website. http://www.yourtoesaremissing.deviantart.com

[SolidÃ…rmor]

How about, asking your parents to take you to an Art store, and you can pick out what you need then? I mostly do my works on sketch pad or plain white paper. Mechanical pencils come in handy, I use a 0.3mm HB lead. Sketching pencils, prismacolor coloring pencils are great. But the choice is totally your's.

[Dante]

I love how people here are reccommending CS2 LOL, do you realize how much that program costs unless you grab a L33t K4Z4 H4X0R P1R4+3D Edition? Sighs and wonders what percent of CAA actually owns the pirated version (Doesn't own the pirated version, but was ticked off when he joyfully found Photoshop 5 for sale at a yard sale and Adobe refused to allow him to upgrade it because although he owned the CD the yardsale guy didn't (In a nasal you should have known type of voice) "sell him the rights" O_o... GRRR Pascal kill!) Ahem... What I mean to say is, if you just starting out at art, and you're not planning to start your own bussiness (just drawing for fun and the pleasure of others) go CHEAP or go FREE. After all, you're not charging for your skills (or at least no ALOT right) so why should you have to pay others to use your gift freely for the world to see? Photoshop CS2 has a TON of tools, (although I still don't believe it has that many more than Ellements to make up for the several hundred dollar difference) but these tools do nothing for you unless you know how to use them in imaginative ways to color and add effects to your pictures. Knowledge and imagination is more important than the tools you have, and you can gain knowledge galor from a swarm of internet art tutorials out there and the tools you need to implement it should be available fairly free (like the GIMP). I'd say the most important tools in a graphics program are the ability to make layers, a magic selection tool, a lasso tool (With the ability to make lasso selections from multiple straight line points), opacity and layer options (such as darken and lighten) and a paint brush of variable width. Yep, that's about it. But even still, you don't "need it" you can as always work with just MS Paint drawing pixel by pixel, as I did in the following pic (Which won Temulin's Draw an Ugly Moogle Contest , using no scanner, just started out with a blank white background and sketched it via mouse (no WACOM, I don't own such a thing) just MS Paint)

[mechana2015]

I love how people here are reccommending CS2 LOL, do you realize how much that program costs unless you grab a L33t K4Z4 H4X0R P1R4+3D Edition?

Actually to my knowledge most of the forums PS using members have legit editions, elements or otherwise. I have an educational CS package, fully liscenced. If one is able to find educational sources, such as studica and other sites, or through a school program, the price is around 2- 400 dollars, as opposed to the 1,000 dollar plus price tag adobe quotes for the professional edition.

[Mave]

Photoshop is what I use but it costs a bomb.

IMO, it's best to have a tablet to compliment your work using the graphic programs. But that is not cheap.....

Erm, I hope everyone noticed the details of my last post. I'll share the exact $$$ this round.

I do have a legal copy of Photoshop 5.0 Limited Edition (Limited as in "limited functions"), which costed around +US$100 when I bought it 5-6 years ago. At the same time, I will confess that my Photoshop CS most probably isn't legit since my friend installed it for me when I reformatted my hard drive 2-3 years ago and I lost the serial number of my Photoshop LE version. The most affordable legit version of Photoshop CS over here today is ~ SGD$500-600 (about USD$250-300) and am currently saving money towards getting the legal copy.

Yes, pls stay away from those ridiculously expensive professional editions, which cost like $1000+. Pascal is right when he says that you just need basic functions like layers, lasso and opacity etc.etc. Free software like GIMP should be able to do the same thing. Syreth is doing just fine with GIMP, see examples of his work --> (http://silvamundus.theproject.us/) without a tablet. I think Shao Feng Li doesn't have a tablet too but she's creating beautiful colored pieces. So there! You don't have to have expensive or sophisticated equipment to draw and create excellent artwork.

Personally, I'm just too used to Photoshop now that I'd rather buy it than to switch to another program. I have tried using GIMP/Painter/JASC Paintshop. Besides, I only started using Photoshop seriously when I obtained a tablet and therefore, will not recommend one over another. But that's just me. My tablet costed me a bomb as well ~ $400 but I have no regrets doing so. Of course, do realize that my tablet is Wacom Intuos 9x 12', bought 2 years ago. You can probably get something significantly cheaper (e.g. smaller size, non-Wacom) and with a little luck of price depreciation over time.

I'm assuming that you are operating on a very limited budget and that's fine. I'm a working professional who can afford to dish out some $$ for equipment but my recommendations are based on my poor student experience and frankly, I still love the traditional method of using cheapo pens and paper to do my linearts.