my first painting

Unfortunately, I don't have a wacom so digital painting is somewhat difficult, but I tried last night, and although it looks pretty poor, I'm half-proud of the job I did. You can give crits and comments on this specific image if you want, but overall tips on how I could do better paintings in the future would probably help me more. Thanks.

painting - http://trhaynes.ionichost.com/stuff/1withmouse.jpg

tom

edit* changed link arrangement

For tips...i recommend www.gfxartist.com to everyone. There tuts are hard as hell....but really give you the feeling about how its done.

As to your image....the word "details" comes to mind. There are a few stages in painting. The first/second is usually called "blocking in". This is where you paint basic shapes/colors/shades to get a feeling for the drawing. Your painting...even though it isnt too bad...is at this stage. Whats needed is to zoom in...with a smaller brush (hard edged and soft) w/ some varaitions of the colors you have now and paint in small details/textures.

Try the cloud painting one first on gfxartist. I think you may learn quite a bit from that.

As a matter of fact I went to the cloud tutorials on gfxartist when you posted the link for someone else. I quickly looked over them, and then opened up Photoshop later that night and tried to recall the tips, but it didn't really work all that well.

I tried to add some detail using a hard brush but I wasn't exactly sure how and it didn't look too good so I stopped that. How should I use the flow when painting like this with a mouse?

tom

How should I use the flow when painting like this with a mouse?

Not quite sure what you mean by this

Also im not sure if you saw these (they're in the other thread where i posted gfxartist) but here are some more tuts if your interested. These are a bit better (scenery kinda tuts). The Rocks and Grass may be pretty helpful.

http://www.epilogue.net/art/tech/

i don't know if this helps you but it shows how you 'block in' colored parts of a painting and then go back over and add detail with smaller and smaller brushes.

usually once i block in the main colors i'll lower the pressure with each smaller brush to get fine details.

this page shows work-in-progress pics of a painting i did. and yes i use a mouse also.
http://www25.brinkster.com/apekpub/paint/pickup.html

good luck!

Oh no....not you again lol. I remember when you posted this a while ago (inspired by joining the airforce or something like that). Its just so good!! Be right back...im going to go kill myself now lol.

Btw..got a site/any other works online?

Thanks for the tutorial links guys. I was just wondering exactly what the flow slider does. Is it best to set it at 100% all the time and not worry about it? Or should it be adjusted at intervals like opacity and brush size? Does the same effect come about if you draw a line at opacity 100% and flow 50% as opacity 50% and flow 100%? I guess I should go read the manual.

tom

Actually you were perfectly clear with your question. Its just im a PS 6 user so i have no idea what the flow option is lol. I just know its a new feature in PS7.

Originally posted by trhaynes
Thanks for the tutorial links guys. I was just wondering exactly what the flow slider does. Is it best to set it at 100% all the time and not worry about it? Or should it be adjusted at intervals like opacity and brush size? Does the same effect come about if you draw a line at opacity 100% and flow 50% as opacity 50% and flow 100%? I guess I should go read the manual.

tom

flow is sort of like how many times the shape of the brush is imprinted onto the image in a stroke. so if you have high flow the stroke will be smoother. if you have low flow the stroke will be choppier.

here's an example showing what you asked for. the top stroke is using opacity 100% and flow 50%. the bottom stroke is using opacity 50% and flow 100% (ignore my unsteady hand)

http://www21.brinkster.com/apekstuff/flow.jpg (add a space to the end)

if you imagine a cartoon. the more frames the smoother it is. hope this helps.

Well, I can't see it at all, this comes up:
"You do not have access to this document"

so...